Cartons



May 17, 1950 c. I Ewls 2,936,941

cAR'roNs Filed oct. 8. 1957 INVENTOR. O//ALfs flu/6 H2M@ MM 4 mpx/FysCARTONS Charles Lewis, Rock Hill, S.C., assignor to Celanese Cor-vporation of America, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware vApplication October 8, 1957, Serial No. 688,854

7 Claims. (Cl. 229-23) j This invention relates to a novel-.carton andmore particularly relates to cartons suitable for the safe packing andstoring of cones and other yarn packages.

' In conventional cartons the height of the kcarton is iixed. 1n fillingsuch a carton, unless the objects placed in the carton are exactly equalin height to the interior of the carton, there will be some free spacewithinkthe. carton. This free space within the carton increases thevolume taken up by the carton during shipping or storage and, inaddition, unless a space filling material is introduced into the cartonthe packed material is free vto move about with possible damageresulting therefrom. With conventional cartons having telescopic top andbottom memberslthere is the added shortcoming that when closed the rimof the wall of the inner members abuts the end of the outer member andif an external compressive wire, the wall of the inner member may buckleor mayV dig into the end of the outer member with damage to bothmembers. c v

It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide a carton whichcan be reduced in size sufficient justA to accommodate the contents withno wasted vertical space. 4- A Another object of the invention is toprovide ai novel carton which is constructed so as to minimize damagetoits contents as well as to its component parts. y

Other objects of this invention will be apparent from the followingdetailed description and claims.

, According vto the present invention there is providedy a' cartoncomprising a pair of members each havingaand other tongues interiorlythereof so that telescopic,

displacement of the members toward each other is limited by the depth ofthe slots.

2,936,941 Patented May 17, 1960 The invention willrnow be described morefully withvr reference to theaccompanying drawing wherein:

force is applied, as during'4 stacking or banding with Fig. 1 is anexploded perspective view of the carton of this invention;

Fig. 2 is aperspective view of the assembled carton; and

Fig. 3 is a section taken along-line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, in Fig. 1 there is showna top member 11 having a rectangular end 12 closed in conventionalmanner, asby staples 13. Two pairs of opposite rectangular walls 14,

15 are connected with respective sides of the closed end 12', definingan open end 16. A tear tape 17, to facilitate opening after sealing,runs about walls 14, 15.

A bottom member 18 has a closed end 19 and two pairs of opposite walls20, 21 defining an open end 22.v

The lines of joinder between adjacent walls are slotted as at 23 for apart of the distance from open end 22 toy closed end 19, defining pairsof opposite tongues 24, 25. The upper corners of the tongues are roundedo as at 2 6 to facilitate assembly.

After filling the bottom member 18 with the goods and continuingstacking the goods until the desired of bottom member 18 are resilientlybent toward each other and tongues 24 are bent away from each other.Side walls 15'of top member 11 are slipped overv tongues 25, thetelescopic engagement being facilitated by rounded corners 26, 4whilethe side walls-14 are slipped inside` tongues 24. "The telescopicdisplacement will be limited either by the ygoods within the cartonor'by the depth of slots 23. Because of this depth minor variations inthe height of the goods can be vaccommodated without waste of space. Theoverlapping between the tongues 24, 25 of the bottom member 18 and thewalls 14, 15 of the top member 11 serves as a reinforcement and alsopermits sealing Aby staples (not shown) driven through both.Conventional band sealing with wire (not shown) can also be used.

Because thewalls` of one memberV do not extend to the closed endof theother member, there is no possibil-v ity of buckling of the walls ordamage to the ends.

With known cartons having at least a three-piece con'-A structin, viz.,spaced top and bottom cover members extending toward each other about aliner, when raising one carton with a fork truck there is thepossibility that the bottom'cover member of the carton being raisedlmight hit the top cover member of an adjacent carton whichis notbeingraised and thereby ldamage Yboth cartons. This cannot occur with thepresent construction.

Because* of the division of the height of the carton intov two portions,the bottom member can be loaded or unloaded readily from above when thetotal height is In a preferred embodiment, the members have reo-- Ytongues. Such material also readily lends itself to sealv ing bystapling or banding with wire.

While the novel cartons are useful in packing of many materials, theyare especially suited for packing yarn packages such as cones, bobbins,and the like.

such that a unitary cartonY could not be so handled. For,

example, a carton in accordance with the present invention might have atopmember 351/2 inches high and a bottom member 23,?/2 inches high Withslots' 6 inches deep, giving a minimum assembled `height of 53 inches'.While'anoperator could readily bend over for access to the-"very bottomofthe 231/2 inch bottom member, vhe. could not ,reach down into a cartonwhere the access,

opening was 53 inches high. o

The novel carton is conveniently .used in conjunction with an open endedliner having a plurality of flaps, such as is described in copendingU.S. patent application Serial No. 533,633 filed by Alvin B. Storey onSeptember 12, 1955. The liner comprises a plurality of wallssuccessively joined to each other to form a tubular structure open atits top and bottom. At least two, and preferably all, of the lines ofjoinder between adjacent walls of the liner are slotted downwardly alonga portion of their height to form one or more flaps which can be foldeddown tjo .afford access to the interior, i.e. with a liner 53 incheshigh 7 an operator could not reach down into the liner for loadmanyvariations may be made therein without departing` from the spirit of myinvention.

Having described my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patentis:

l. The combination, for forming a carton for packing materials, of topand bottom members each having a wall element, a closed end and an openend, the open ends of said members corresponding to each other inperiphery,

said bottom member being shorter than said top member,

the wall portion of only said bottom member being provided with aplurality of slots extending fromits open end toward but terminatingbefore its closed end, said slots defining a plurality of tonguestherebetween, where- V by said members can be joined at their open endsinto a` closed carton with said tongues of said bottom membertelescopically overlapping a portion of the wall element of the topmember, some of said tongues being positioned exteriorly of portions ofthe wall element ofthe top member and other ofsaid tongues beingpositioned interiorly of other portions of the wall element of the topmember, said slots limiting telescopic displacement of said membersrelative to each other, and an open ended liner conforming totherinteriors of said members and provided with a plurality ofverticalslots defining at least one iap which can be bent down to aiordaccess to its interior.

2. The combination set forthin claim 1,v wherein at least some or" saidtongues are rounded adjacent their respective open end to facilitatejoinder of said members.

3. The combination set forth in claim 1, including a tear strip embodiedin one of said wall elements remote from the overlapping area. p

4. The combination, for forming a carton for packing materials, of topand bottom members each having a plurality of substantially rectangularwalls extending perpendicularly from the sides of a polygonal closed endand joined to deline a polygonal open end, the open ends of said memberscorresponding to each other in periphery, said bottom member beingshorter than said top member, the lines of joinder between adjacentwalls of only said bottom member being slotted from the open end towardbut terminating before the closed end, the slots defining a plurality'oftongues therebetween, whereby said members can be joined at their yopenends into a closed cartn with said tongues of said bottom membertelescopically overlapping a portion of the wall element of the topmember, some of said tongues being positioned exteriorly of portions ofthe wall elementof the top member and other of said tongues beingpositioned interiorly of other portions of the wall element of the topmember, said slotsy limiting telescopic displacement of said membersrelative to each other, and an open ended liner conforming to theinteriors of said members and provided with slots extending downwardlyalong a portion of the lines of joinder between adjacent walls to detineat least one ap which can be bent down to afford access to the interiorof the liner.

5. The combination, for forming `a carton for packing materials, of topand bottom memberseach having four substantially rectangular wallsextending perpendicularly from the sidesof a rectangular closed end andjoined to deline a rectangular open end, the open ends of said memberscorresponding to each other in periphery, said bottom member beingshorter than said top member, the lines of joinder between adjacentwalls of only said bottom`member being slotted from the open end towardbut terminating before the closed end, the slots deiining a plurality oftongues therebetween, whereby said members can be joined at their openends into a closed carton with said tongues of said bottom membertelescopically overlapping a portion of the wall element of the topmember, some of said tongues being positioned exteriorly of portions ofthe wall elementof the top member and other of said tongues beingpositioned interiorly of other portions of the wall element of the topmember, said slots limiting telescopic displacement of said membersrelativeV Vto each other, and an open ended rectangular liner conformingto the interiors of said members and provided with slots extendingdownwardly along a portion of at least three of the lines of joinderbetween adjacent walls to define at least two flaps which can be bentdownto afford access tothe interior of the liner from two adjacentsides.

6` The carton set forth in claim 5, Wherein'the tongues on the wideWalls are rounded adjacent their respective open end to facilitatejoinderof said members.

p 7. AA carton for packing materials comprising top and bottom resilientmembers each having four substantially rectangular walls extendingperpendicularly from the sides of a rectangular closed end. and joinedto define a rectangular'open end, one pair of opposite walls beingrelatively wide and the other pair being relatively narrow, the openends of said members corresponding to each other in periphery, saidbottom lmember being shorter than said top member, the lines ofjoinderbetween adjacent walls of only :said bottom member being slottedfrom the open end toward but terminating before the closed end,vtheslots defining a plurality of tonguesrtherebetween, said tongues. ofsaid bottom member telescopically overlapping'a respective wall of thetop member, the tongues on the narrow walls being positioned exteriorlyof the respective walls of the top member and the tongues on the widewalls being positioned interiorly ofthe respective walls of the topmember, said slots limiting telescopic displacementv of said membersrelative toreach other, and an open ended rectangular liner conformingto the interiors `of said members and provided with slots extendingdownwardly along a portion of at least three of the lines of joinderbetween adjacent Walls to define at least two iiapswhich canrbe bentdown to afford access to the Y interior of theliner from two adjacentsides.

References Cited in the file of Vthis patentV UNITED STATES PATENTSBuhrmaster Oct. 1n 1957

